Today was an early start which honestly sucks for me.  I really am not a fan of getting up early.  I had to be at the clinic for pulmonary function testing that started 7am.  Jacob went with me and Tyler stayed at the hotel to sleep.

It is the most extensive pulmonary testing that I have had and I have had a lot done, especially at National Jewish in Denver.  This time they did extra testing due to the fact that I had a tracheostomy last year and also because of the reconstruction of my diaphragm.  I also had to walk up and down a set of stairs for 3 minutes.  I honestly did not know if I could do that but I did!  Luckily that was after they had given me albuterol.

Next I went and had a chest X-ray done and then to the lab to have blood work done.

After that we went to my thoracic surgery appointment to follow up from my surgery that I had in May.  It was a good appointment.  Everything is healing as it should and seems to be holding.  We reviewed some of my imaging from my last visit and this visit.  I have an area of what they call ground glass opacity measuring about 10mm that they are monitoring.  As far as my imaging goes it “looks pretty good” for what I have been through.  We also discussed some of my ongoing pain issues in my chest.  They feel that I have post thoracotomy syndrome which is common after the surgery that I had last year.  Unfortunately it is not something that will get better, but there are some medications that I can try to see if I can get some relief from it.

Tomorrow we will se endocrinology to see if they have any different ideas to help with my hypoglycemia.  I am not holding out a lot of hope for this as I have already seen the GI dr here at Mayo and have been told that it is pretty much the way it is going to be due to my anatomy.  Who knows, maybe I will be surprised.

After that I will see pulmonary and go over my tests and imaging with them and see what their recommendations are.  There is some question on my imaging that they are trying to determine if there is some type of infectious process or if what they are seeing is fibrosis/scarring.  I have had a fairly large decline in my breathing over the last year and am pretty anxious to see what they have to say if anything.

I sent the boys out on their own again tonight.  I had a blood sugar crash and am pretty tired.  We are all excited to be done with dr appointments tomorrow and head to Mt. Rushmore!